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there’s no need for Anthony Weiner

There’s no reason for Anthony Weiner to remain in the mayoral race in New York, or for him to tell the world that his sexting (is that what this is?) scandals are going to make him a better mayor. Everyone knows now this is false. He has no reason to continue lying to the public about how his past is in the past, then continue to be found in another exchange, have more selfies revealed, more women come forward.

Anthony Weiner was in Congress and now he is not. He had a political future before him in those days but now he does not. There isn’t any reason for things to continue in this manner. It’s over.

The behavior of men such as Anthony Weiner towards the women of the world is deplorable. He is the picture of a man wielding privilege and power to get his ambition met at all costs. Not necessarily over the the young women he engages with on twitter; they’re of age and making their own choices. These women are not necessarily victims of Mr. Weiner’s tweets.

They, and all women in contact with men like Weiner, are instead victims of the ego of those who put their advantage over everything. Such an ego does not fade lightly when the bright lights expose the corners of sexual appetite.

It is this ego that lead Anthony Weiner to bring his wife before the public so she may declare her faithfulness to him, again, only to see him reveal more hiding and lying and infidelity, again. To see her smeared on Fox News as a scary and dangerous Muslim. To see her embarrassed and berated and questioned by men and women throughout the country. You have allowed these things to happen to your wife, Anthony Weiner.

Then there are the campaign employees who will, when needed, be quoted in the papers calling former female interns “fucking slutbags” and “cunts” and all manner of abuse. We don’t know the back-story, who these people are and how everyone has interacted in private. But such interactions are irrelevant. And no manner of bad behavior is cause for this kind of treatment.

Behavior like this is deplorable. This is the behavior of a man who believes that he can live free of consequence, who can compartmentalize the fact that the maintaining disposable young sexual partners will not impact the ambition of a clean-cut political talent. Others will see what you’re doing and they’ll take it up, too, and more women will be treated in like fashion.

It appears that Anthony Weiner is a man who wants power and control and adventure in his sexual ambition. In the US, to this, we say: find a willing partner and have a fun and consensual sex life. We should not judge Anthony Weiner’s sexual appetites, after all. But we should judge the behavior that results because of those appetites. A man who will put his wife through this, repeatedly, is judged poorly. A man whose run for mayor leads to the printed humiliation of young women is to be rebuked.

There’s no need for such destruction, Mr. Weiner. There’s no reason for any of this. Go tweet your desires to the young and willing women of the world and give up your ambition for power.

There are 8 million people who live in New York. I’m sure at least 1 is more suited to be mayor than you.